High Up In The Mountains
by skeptic skeleton
Summary: The Jones-Hunter family decides to take a camping trip for family bonding. CeCe and Logan get into a fight and everything goes downhill. But why does he want to fix it so badly?


**What's up? I felt like I just needed to write this, so don't judge me.**

**Usually, the reason I'm writing a SIU story is because of DeCe, or very rarely, Cy. But Logan and CeCe—I just had to do it. No doubt about it.**

**Their hate for each other is just so crazy and ridiculous, it's hard for me not to picture writing about it, so here I am. But really, nearly complete strangers shouldn't be able to hate each other so much; it's nearly laughable.**

**Not any romance or anything; just some sibling bonding, but not a lot.**

* * *

"I hate this, I hate this, I hate this, I hate this—"

"CeCe! No matter how many times you say it, we're not turning around." Georgia watched her daughter huff and slouch back in her seat in the back of the car. Since there were five of them, Logan, CeCe, and Flynn were crammed together in the back, packed together as tight as sardines.

Rather childishly, CeCe and Logan refused to be seated next to each other, forcing poor Flynn to act as a barrier between the two stubborn teens.

"Can't you just deal with it already?" Logan grumbled, lifting his head from the window irritably.

"Can't _you_ just leave me alone already?" CeCe snapped. Her curls whacked Flynn in the face as she whipped her from looking out to long stretching miles of trees. This had to be the worst _family vacation_ ever.

Georgia shot her husband a look. He had to face facts that she was right—the eldest children were going to be at each other's throat the entire weekend and Flynn would join in for the sake of not being left out. She knew it when the parents had made the announcement.

"Camping?!" CeCe had protested the idea. "Of all the things, you choose camping? Do you want a replay of last time?" She'd given her mom the look, reminiscing the unfortunate truth or dare accident.

Jeremy, for everyone's sake, easily ignored that. "It'll be our first family bonding as a joint family," he had cheered.

With him being a fireman, CeCe was appalled that this whole thing was his idea.

"Are you enjoying that family bonding now?" Georgia asked over the arguing kids.

Jeremy gripped the steering wheel and sighed. "Give it time," he advised. "They have to stop eventually."

Georgia knew how unlikely this seemed with both their kids being as stubborn as they were, but didn't say anything as the car pulled into the campsite.

CeCe (with surprising eagerness) pushed herself out of the car before the vehicle rolled to a full stop.

Her burst of energy didn't last long as she pulled her phone out of her pocket, and frowned at how she had, like, _zero _bars, and shoved it back into her pocket grumpily.

"This sucks!" the redhead cried hazardously. "Couldn't you have picked a campsite with cell service at least?"

Logan mockingly clapped, he too jumping out of the car. "Wow CeCe, I'm impressed you could use a big girl word like service."

Flynn snickered and they did their weird handshake this as CeCe rolled her eyes in annoyance, shouting their signature "Zam!" at the end.

For God sakes, was she the only one who knew that wasn't a real word?

Just when she was about to interject on their little bromance, Jeremy got their attention by loudly clapping his hands and putting his leg on a cooler.

"Alright gang," he began with a smile. "First we set up tents, and then we eat."

Surprisingly, it was Flynn who complained of the children. "Can't we eat first? I'm starving…"

"How can you still be hungry? You ate two bags of chips in the car, and the car ride was only an hour long," CeCe pointed out.

Flynn patted his stomach as he replied, "A growing boy is always eating."

With another eye roll, his sister dragged herself to the trunk and began to pull her things out of the small car space. Soon enough, a small pink mountain of luggage and bags started to take form, surrounding nearly the entire back side of the car.

"We're only going to be here a day and night; do you really need that many masks for your face?" Logan snickered as Flynn slapped him a high-five. CeCe's fists tightened, her face blossoming red.

"Can you ever keep your mouth closed about anything?!" she cried, ready to take a swing. She took a few furious steps forward, but they went unnoticed by the males.

CeCe was livid as she watched her siblings (one step-sibling, she corrected) laugh at her expanse. She had had enough of this was no longer going to be the core of their jokes. Stalking up to them, she poked a black and gold fingernail into Logan's chest, eyes squinted.

"You know what, Logan?" she began—her voice was nothing short of a loud hiss. It was so sudden and startling she even caught the attention of their lovesick parents. A small part of her felt guilty for ruining this little happy family image they had, but she just couldn't take it. "I'm sick and tired of all your putdowns! I am a human being—I deserve, no, I have _earned _more than what you have given me, and we've seen each other plenty of times or the course of three months. I may not be your idea of humane, but I am taking a stand for myself."

Logan was taken aback by his stepsister's built up burst of passion on the topic, but stood his ground. "Well maybe if you acted less like a brat and more like the person you 'claim' to be, I would consider that. But no, CeCe, all you are is a snob!"

The redhead drew back, still enraged, but surprised to feel tears pricking in the back of her eyes. Is that really what people think of her?

"Do you think this is easy for me?" CeCe caved her change in emotion evident in the choke in her voice. She forced it down her throat. "My own mom and brother think more of my best friend than they do of me—"Flynn looked on guilty, sad to hear his part in this—"and the only person who understands me is in another state, visiting twice a year." CeCe pulled back, wiping at her face roughly with the back of her hand. "I may be happy for our parents, but I don't want to lie to them about something that won't _ever _work out."

With her words still sinking deep, she ran, fast and uncontrollably into the woods, looking for some ground of peace.

Logan and Georgia were the ones the snap into action first.

Logan knew what was happening barely before it started. "Oh God…" he said to himself, staring at the woods' floor.

Georgia, while perfectly capable of doing so that moment, kept her screams inside and opted for a stern look. "Go find your sister."

The elder sibling overlooked the fact she forgot the _step _part—he figured she purposely left it off. Instead he chose to protest, "Why do I have to do it?" But Logan knew his attempts were useless; besides, he already knew the answer.

"She is your sister, and this is your fight." Georgia pointed in the general direction of where her daughter fled to. "Now it's your job to find her."

Angered, but not much so, Logan stomped off into the thick woods, hoping this task would be easier than what he thought.

**{::::}**

It was nearly nightfall when he found a trace of his sibling's trail. Logan must have spent an hour doing nothing but aimless wondering and marking his trail—there was no good in both of them getting lost.

Because of recent rainfall, the ground was damper and less covered the more he went into the woods, making it easy to see her footsteps in the light of phone.

That is, until they disappeared again.

Logan let out a low and carried out growl or frustration; for the love of God, why did she have to wander off? Or more importantly, why did it seem like he was her constant babysitter?

With the last orange streaks chased away by the darkened navy blue of night, Logan was positive he could turn around and head back to the camp site, hop into a tent, and hope that CeCe was smart enough to defend herself against the wild bears that may have tried to eat her.

But he quickly vetoed the idea; smarts was not a given when it came to his sister.

Logan, very tired from his little hunt of the evening, leaned against a tree for a break. It wasn't until he heard a quiet rustle of something on the other side of the same tree that he realized he may have gone a little too far into the woods and basically doomed himself for some horrible death.

At least, that was what his mind was convinced of until he heard an angered, but tired, sigh that was distinctly human.

And a strong whiff of fruity perfume reached his nose.

He turned, not caring enough to be quiet, to see a hunched figure. Their skin was pale in the moonlight, their frame shaking because the only thing they wore were cutoffs and a paper thin T-shirt.

_CeCe._

His body took over before his mind could register that, yes, he actually found her, and, yes, she wasn't one of those stupid dead girls that were often seen on the news.

Logan reached out to shake her shoulder, jerking his arm back upon realizing her skin was unnecessarily cold. Even for it being spring, night was still rather chilly for anyone with bare arms.

"Dammit, CeCe. Why'd you have to run off?" He muttered bitterly, pulling off his own jacket to drape it around her shoulders. It hung off her thing frame baggily. When seeing that she wouldn't move, the young man sighed irritably and moved closer, shoving her arms through the sleeve and reluctantly beginning to rub her arms, working to circulate warmth through them. The sleeve slipped passed her hands.

"What're you doing here?" CeCe snapped like a delayed thought on her tongue. She just then seemed to realize that Logan was with her and forcing her to drift away from her hiding spot.

Logan narrowly shrugged off her question, instead choosing to complain, "They should pay me for how much I have to keep track of you."

He hadn't meant for it to come out as loudly as it did. As much as CeCe found his thoughts something to bark at, she bit down on her tongue.

Neither said anything for a long time.

CeCe found herself doing nothing but watching the odd shapes pass as they walked by them, different things morphed into something else because of the strange lighting of moonlight. She had done all her thinking on her run away from her family and a little more when she had stopped. It left her mind blank, but full of lots of different things at the same time.

"Did you really mean everything you said?" Logan blurted. It was so sudden it startled the both of them. One arm was still rubbing warmth through her, but he used his free hand to rub at the back of his awkwardly.

The redhead dragged her feet. She hadn't meant for everything to come out like it did, but she could not deny the way she felt. "Yeah, I guess so."

"Why?"

_I really don't like that question._

"You don't have to answer, you know, if you don't want to," Logan rushed to add. He tried not to make anything worse than what it was.

CeCe bundled up the ends of the sleeves into her fists and held them tight. "I dunno; my dad and I were always so close. Him, the divorce—it still stings after ten years. And suddenly, our parents are married to each other? It pushed me to my breaking point I guess."

She was saying that a lot: _I guess._

Logan kept silent, thinking over her words. He was surprised at how often that day this girl he thought didn't have a brain to call her own was making him think things over. But she was right—lots of things _had _happened so fast. He was so focused on keeping his mouth shut for his father and making things their best for everyone else that he hadn't realized how fighting with CeCe wasn't the best.

The pair of teenagers was so silent, CeCe let out a quiet gasp of surprise when seeing the distant flame of a fire; they were almost to the camp site.

As she was about to break through the thickets of trees and show herself, a warm hand gently pulled her back to Logan's side. The flame of the camp fire was close enough to illuminate his eyes.

"I'm sorry," Logan whispered, barely managing to meet her eyes.

CeCe blinked—she nearly shrunk into his jacket more, but stopped herself from doing so. "For what?" she cocked her head, curious.

"Can we just leave it at that?" Logan leaned closer as he said the words; CeCe still had to strain to make out the ending. Before she could question him further, he slipped away from her.

The redhead waited a few moments after he went to reveal herself. Georgia decided it was the right time to go ballistic, which she did quite nicely. CeCe sat in her set up fold-up chair and just let her rant, too tired and worn to retort.

By the time she had retreated back to her tent (boy, did she feel bad for the three boys being jammed into the same tent.), she was still wearing Logan's jacket, and nearly fell asleep with it on.

The last thing she saw when she fell asleep was the faraway peak of the mountains through the tent.

* * *

**The ending is horrendous, but it's nearly 4am and I'm freaking exhausted.**

**So I lied, if you squint, there's some romance—just a tiny smudge between sibling bond and something more, but whatever.**

**I hope you guys enjoyed this, because when I first thought of it, I thought the idea would be different and entirely fitting to them.**

**And while I still have your attention, if you have a request for a CeCe/Logan or any other show/pairing/whatever-you-think-I'll-write-for PM me or leave it in a review if you are incapable of doing so.**

**Love you guys, muwah!**


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